Benchmarks fell led by declines in blue-chip stocks like Reliance Industries, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Larsen & Toubro.

The S&P BSE Sensex fell for a fifth day in a row while the 50-share Nifty 50 Index extended losses to a fourth straight session led by declines in blue-chip stocks like Reliance Industries, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Larsen & Toubro. The Sensex fell as much as 413 points from day's highest level to fall below 36,000 in intraday deals for the first time since January 31 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index declined to settle below 10,800.

The Sensex ended 120 points or 0.33 per cent lower at 36,034 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index declined 0.35 per cent or 38 points to 10,794.

For most part of the day benchmarks traded firmly higher with HDFC twins, Infosys and ITC leading the gains after inflation fell to lowest level in 19 months in January. However, a late selloff in energy, oil & gas and capital goods shares wiped off entire intraday gains.

Sixteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended lower led by the S&P BSE Oil & Gas Index's 2.1 per cent loss. On the other hand, S&P BSE Information Technology Index was top gainer, up 0.7 per cent.

Eicher Motors was the top Nifty loser, the stock fell 4.82 per cent to Rs 20,118. Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum, State Bank of India and ONGC were also among the laggards, down between 3 and 4 per cent each. On the flipside, Adani Ports, Indiabulls Housing Finance, UPL and Tata Motors were among the gainers in the Nifty 50 basket of shares.

The mid- and small-cap shares also ended lower as the S&P BSE Midcap Index fell 0.52 per cent and the S&P BSE Smallcap Index declined 0.38 per cent.

Among the individual shares, CG Power and Industrial Solutions slumped 30 per cent to Rs 23.75 after its loss widened to Rs 150.18 crore in December quarter from loss of Rs 28 crore during the same quarter last year. The company made a disclosure in exchange filing that it had given loans worth Rs 730 crore to one of its subsidiary and that subsidiary had further given a loan to an affiliate company.